D&D 5E Advice for Running 5E -- Your Experiences

[aramis erak]

Actually, you get advantage on flanking. So thus with advantage the Rogue gets a sneak attack each turn.

Scott

Not in the published Player's Basic nor PHB. Dropped between final playtest and publication.

There is enabling wording in the section on advantage, but it's not spelled out; the DM can assign advantage if he wishes.

 

[Li Shenron]

Next weekend I am running 5E at Carnage Con (for 20 hours of hexcrawling fun!). I am a longtime DM from 1E and B/X through 3E, PF and even a little 4E, so I don't need general DMing advice. And I am using various other edition GMing resources for the exploration rules that aren't available yet, from the 1E DMg to the PF Ultimate Campaign book. What i really need are some practical bits of advice ragarding running 5E specifically -- pitfalls to watch out for, things that are too awesome to not use in play, areas where previous edition knowledge can really mess you up, etc...

Note that I will not be using minis and battlemats, going for a "theater of the mind plus here's a sketch" method that has served me throughout every edition of the game. I also plan on treating ideals etc... like Fate Core aspects as it relates to gaining Inspiration (just because I like the mechanic).

Thanks a bunch for your input!

My few suggestions:

1) do not grant advantage for "good ideas" (or much worse for "good descriptions") only; just stick to which parts of the rules expliticly grant advantage; handle "good ideas" only from a narrative point of view -> there are already plenty of sources of advantage in the game, free advantage is also hard to keep consistent

2) familiarize with the new concentration rules for spells, and use some "visual flags" on the table to keep in mind when a spellcaster is concentrating -> sometimes it's easy to forget you should check for concentration or lose the spell

3) do not ask the players to completely fill the character sheet, tell them to first just write down what they are actually proficient at + what they are interested in using (for example, don't force players to pick traits/ideals/flaws/bonds, let them pick if they want or ignore if the aren't interested yet) -> speeds up the starting phase, allows to keep a "decluttered" character sheet

 

[jamesmanhattan]

One of the main things I forgot is keeping track of who's Concentrating on what.
The Evil Wizard cast Hold Person on the Fighter. The Fighter kept failing his saving throw and was paralyzed and could do nothing. I felt bad for him not having a fun time.

The entire time the party was attacking the Evil Wizard, I forgot to make the Wizard make Concentration rolls on the Hold Person, which would have let the fighter get free.

and Vice Versa, a lot of the player spells can be pretty brutal like Hold Person or Silence. Don't forget to attack the players to force them to make Concentration checks.

And don't forget about Hit Dice spending during short rests. Players coming from 3.5 and Pathfinder will often think it's the healer's job to heal everyone up. Let players use those Hit Dice instead.

 

[Nebulous]

Not in the published Player's Basic nor PHB. Dropped between final playtest and publication.

There is enabling wording in the section on advantage, but it's not spelled out; the DM can assign advantage if he wishes.

So...huh? My player with the rogue says he does get advantage sneak attacking while flanking, but that's not in the book officially?

Edit: nevermind, i read it over.

You don’t need advantage on the attack roll if another enemy of the target is within 5 feet of it, that enemy isn’t incapacitated, and you don’t have disadvantage on the attack roll

 

[Runny]

Please hand out magic items sparingly. Consider Plate a magic item. I'd would be wary of handing any magic items or Plate to 4th level pregens.

I second the concentration comment. I always forget to make concentration checks.

 

[Nebulous]

Magic is MUCH more rare. Treat even a +1 weapon as an extremely valuable item. Give it a name, a history, and a secondary function. Alternatively, forego the +1 completely and just give it a secondary function, or recreate a feat.

 

[aramis erak]

So...huh? My player with the rogue says he does get advantage sneak attacking while flanking, but that's not in the book officially?

Edit: nevermind, i read it over.

You don’t need advantage on the attack roll if another enemy of the target is within 5 feet of it, that enemy isn’t incapacitated, and you don’t have disadvantage on the attack roll

Plus, see page PHB 173 or PBR 57, right column, end of the paragraph 7...

The DM can also decide that circumstances
influence a roll in one direction or the other and grant
advantage or impose disadvantage as a result.​

I treat surrounding someone as worth advantage. The rules don't spell out flanking, but by using that particular paragraph as justification, I'll let them have advantage on a surrounded character.

 

[Rhenny]

Oh, here's another important new rule that I forgot while playtesting: only 1 bonus action per turn. This is especially important for rogues (either duel wielding or cunning action not both) and monks (ki point use).

 

[aramis erak]

The one I realized only Tuesday: Opportunity Attacks and dual wield bonus attacks must be made with a melee weapon, Tho the dual wield may be a throw of it. So pistol first, then the rapier.

 

[Reynard]

I just wanted to pop in and thank everyone again. I ran 5 sessions (20 hours!) of my 5e "massive multiplayer table top RPG" this weekend at Carnage and it went far better than I could have imagined. I will be doing a full blog write up about it soon (see sig).